Aspara
Aspara Kingdom is a fairly large kingdom located in the first half of the Grand Line. In the One Piece fan story, One Piece: The Jolly Age, Aspara is revealed to be the home of both Jolly D. Chris and Niko Lai; the captain and cabin boy of The Jolly Pirates respectively. Very little else has been alluded to regarding the kingdom and the island it's found on outside of flashbacks within One Piece: The Jolly Age and the story's Intro Arc and Chris Arc. Aside from this, the island itself has become the home to other notable characters throughout the wiki, and the kingdom is said to be well known for its masterful artists and entertainers. It is here, during the Chris Arc of One Piece: The Jolly Age, that The Jolly Pirates regrouped after having disbanded for two years, and departed for the New World. General Information The kingdom of Aspara has developed a name for itself due to the countless professional artists and performers whom call it home, and so the island itself tends to be saturated with creativity and self-expression, as well as gaining a good deal of tourism and profitable income from those seeking to experience the kingdom's beauty and imaginative citizens. The island it's located on, fittingly enough, is known as Pleasure Island (喜び島 Yorokobi Airando;) perhaps due to those who live there and those who visit the island finding the artistry to be pleasing. Pleasure Island itself is located almost near the end of Paradise; found on the outskirts of the dreaded Florian Triangle and sandwiched between the triangle and Sabaody Archipelago. As a Spring Island, the weather is usually warm and comfortable throughout the year, and due to its size rivaling that of Thriller Bark, Pleasure Island appears to be moderately large enough to support a few towns, cities and a forest. Kingdom Information * Kingdom Name: Aspara * Current Queen: Regina Marble * Former Kings: Majestic B. Nevelont (deceased;) Majestic T. Decaden (dethroned) * Important People: Regina Palette, Rex Kong, Mira, Jolly D. Chris, Niko Lai, Jolly D. Mona, Jolly D. Gogh, Just D. Kris * Current Affiliations: World Government, The Jolly Pirates * Poneglyph: No * Population: Unknown Architecture Landmarks and Cities Cities The cities of Aspara appear to be the most stylized, in comparison to the kingdom's rustic and simpler towns. Because of Aspara's artistic heritage, no two cities look exactly alike; resulting in certain cities taking on a Gothic architecture style and others leaning more towards realism or classical designs. The cities themselves tend to also vary in size; with some being roughly the same size as a town and others tending to sprawl out over a wide area. Many of these cities share a similar feature however; they usually tend to be cut off from each other by Pleasure Island's rich forests. The forests themselves are filled with expressive and almost absurd wildlife and fauna, such as dash deer and sumo bears, making for travel between cities rather difficult, and for the unprepared, surprising. Landmarks These are the memorable and sometimes unique locations that stand out among the kingdom; be it because of what they represent and stand for, their appearance or because of their very nature and history. Like the cities of the island, Aspara's landmarks can be wildly creative and expressive, or simple and down to earth. Just Jolly House A place of residence created within the confines of a tree, surrounded by a thick forest. It was the childhood home for Just D. Kris and Jolly D. Chris after they had lost their parents. After Kris' acceptance into the Marines, it became the sole home of Chris while he continued his 10 year long rebellion against Majestic T. Decaden. Citizens History The Reign of the Majestic Family About more than two or three decades ago, Aspara was known to still be under the control of the well known Majestic family, whom had complete authority over the kingdom for generations. The most recent king at the time was a man known as Majestic B. Nevolent, who true to his name, was popular among his people for his kindness, compassion and love for the citizens. He had also conceived one son, the pampered and spoiled Decaden. Roughly fifteen years before the current timeline or so, Nevolent had fallen ill and inevitably died, and due to the vacancy to the right to the throne, rule of Aspara had been placed upon Decaden. For the next decade or two, Decaden's self-entitled attitude and selfish, hedonistic lifestyle began to destabilize the country. Believing a king is the only one worthy enough for the finer things in life, Decaden created a decree that every able artist, entertainer and performer be brought to his castle and kept there as his personal source of amusement. While Decaden made it out to sound like an honorary opportunity for his citizens, the grim reality was that he had enslaved them within his castle for years. This resulted in many families, friends and loved ones being torn apart, such as what happened to the Jolly and Just familie. Likewise, the economy of the kingdom began to decline, as its primary source of income (its many talented artists) was now locked away, due to Decaden forbidding the entertainers from performing for others. Aspara kingdom was beginning to face oblivion, and even to this day, this decade would forever be considered its bleakest era in history. Not only was Decaden selfishly hoarding the kingdom's human resources to himself, but he had also employed the use of his royal guard to ensure no one would leave the castle. Considering those who lived outside the castle would go on for years without seeing their loved ones again, rumors began to spread that Decaden may have ultimately killed some of the enslaved citizens, should they no longer be able to perform for him, or if they have displeased him in some way. Sadly, the rumors would later be proven true, as quite a few citizens did end up dying within the castle for a multitude of reasons. And to ensure that only he himself would enjoy the kingdom's high quality art and performances, Decaden enforced a rule against what he called "freelance artistry." This law made it so that no one was allowed to perform for anyone other than the king; a rule that could be punishable by imprisonment or even death. In turn, the royal guard for Aspara had been turned against the entire population as Decaden further gave into his detestable lifestyle. It was around this time that Decaden seemed to have eaten the Earth Earth Fruit; a Devil Fruit that the Majestic family had held within their possession for generations. It had gone uneaten for so long, because members of the family seemed to recognize what power it would grant, and feared the consequences of consuming it. As a result, Nevolent had lectured his son on the rule of never eating the Devil Fruit, and to always keep it out of the hands of those who'd wish to abuse its power. However, with the death of Nevolent, Decaden decided to eat the Earth Earth Fruit, so as to further cement his control over the entire island. Jolly D. Chris' Uprising By the time Decaden came to power and began to hoard the artists of Aspara for himself, Chris was only eight years old. At such a young age, he had witnessed both his mother and his father get forcibly taken away from him, as well as some of his uncles and aunts. With the family heavily splintered apart by the selfish tyrannical king, and feeling angry and torn up over the loss of his family, Chris ultimately decided to enact revenge against Decaden. And so for ten straight years, Chris built himself up to be a strong fighter so that he could take on the royal guard and defeat Decaden personally. In the meantime, he had stumbled upon the Clay Clay Fruit, which he would later hesitantly eat in order to gain more strength so he could face off against Decaden. He also ended up agreeing to living together with his older cousin, as their parents were no longer around to support them. Taking refuge in a furbished tree within a forest, Chris and Kris spent their childhoods together; supporting and loving one another, fighting with each other, and helping each other grow into stronger, more capable people. In time, whilst Kris grew up to later join the Marines, due to wanting to put a stop to corrupt and evil people like Decaden, Chris himself decided upon staying behind and continuing to work for the vengeance he felt he deserved. Now with more free time to himself, Chris supplemented his training and personal growth with indulging himself in the criminal act of freelance artistry. Knowing his fellow citizens were consumed with despair and hopelessness, Chris made it a personal mission of his to travel the island as a nomad and perform for the citizens; hoping that this would keep their spirits up until Chris had dethroned Decaden. As a result, this put Chris into conflict with the royal guard on numerous occasions; with the royal guard gaining the upper hand on Chris time and time again. Most notably, Chris would always find himself pursued and threatened by the likes of the guard's co-captains, Kong and Mira. The Pirate Coup D'etat After ten years of training, freelance artistry and evading the royal guard, Chris had finally reached the level of strength and skill he possessed at the start of One Piece: The Jolly Age. Despite his ten years of growth however, he was still outclassed by the sheer size of the royal guard and the powers of Kong and Mira. Due to the unexpected visit of the Straw Hat Pirates however, and thanks to their compassion towards Chris and his plight, the pirates managed to help support Chris in getting past the royal guard, defeating Kong and Mira, and finally dethroning Decaden. The resulting chaos was enough to shed light on Decaden's behavior as king, which forced the government to strip him of his title and authority, as well as throw him in prison for his abuse of power. And even though Marines were called in to support Decaden at first, only to then arrest him and then attempt to arrest the pirates too, the citizens of Aspara continued to secretly thank and respect Chris and the Straw Hat Pirates as heroes of the nation, as opposed to fanatic revolutionaries. The World Government itself, fearing the bad publicity, credited the Marines for revealing Decaden's atrocious negligence, as it would have looked bad if news got out that pirates and a lone citizen had exposed a shameful mistake on the government's part. Following this chaotic event, Chris would later go on to start his own pirate crew, and the events of One Piece: The Jolly Age would commence shortly after. The nation of Aspara itself would also go on to rebuild itself and try to recover from the damage done to it by Decaden. In the months following Aspara's recuperation as a government sponsored kingdom, the citizens had agreed to elect Regina Marble as the new queen of Aspara, with her daughter, Palette, as its princess. This decision became the definitive end of the Majestic dynasty, and would soon usher in the new Regina dynasty. Likewise, Palette worked her way up into becoming the new "Left Shield" of Marble's royal guard (replacing Mira, who formerly held that position,) and thus would become one of the two new co-captains of the guard. Accompanying her was a figure simply known as -----, who earned himself the title of "Right Shield" (replacing Kong.) Together, Palette and ----- reinstated Aspara's "Two Shields." The Jolly Pirates' Reunion Two years after the end of the Majestic dynasty and Chris' departure from Aspara, he would soon return home in order to reunite with his crew of pirates, whom had all been training for two years straight in order to prepare themselves for the New World. Upon arriving, Chris decided to take a stroll throughout the island as he reminisced about his childhood and the events that lead up to him leaving Aspara in order to become a pirate. Meanwhile, his crew traveled around the kingdom in the hopes of coming across one another and quickly returning to their ship, with some of them enjoying the sights along the way. Before they could leave however, they were greeted by the queen of Aspara, Regina Marble, and her Two Shields, Palette and -----. Marble spent some time expressing her thanks to Chris and the Renegade Pirates on behalf of the entire kingdom, and that she and the citizens have considered themselves to be honored allies of The Jolly Pirates, even if they had to keep it a secret from the World Government in the process. After sharing their feelings and thoughts with one another, The Jolly Pirates finally bid farewell to Aspara and began their new course for the New World. Trivia *Aspara's home island, Pleasure Island, has its name inspired by a joke. Many variations probably exist, but the general idea of the joke involves someone mentioning a nearby "Pleasure Island," after being hit upon by the same gender (or after mistaking someone for making unwanted advances.) You may or may not have heard it at least once in your life. **Likewise, Apara kingdom's name was derived from the Hindu and Buddhist female cloud spirits; which can also translate out to in English as "nymph." The Aspara were said to be beautiful and supernatural, youthful and elegant, and superb at dancing. They were often wives of the Gandharvas, the court musicians of Indra. Not only would they dance to the Gandharvas' music, but they would also entertain and even sometimes seduce men and gods alike. Also, they're considered to rule over the fortunes of gaming and gambling, have been compared to the Greek muses (ancient Greek goddesses of inspiration for literature, science and the arts,) and each of the 26 Asparas at Indra's court have been noted to represent a certain performing art. This all seems to point to the implication that the Asparas artistic undertones were the reason behind the kingdom's name. *Wyvern 0m3g4 originally intended for Aspara kingdom to be named Pleasure Island. Though after noticing many known islands in the One Piece world were named after the kingdoms that ruled them, such as Alabasta or Sakura Kingdom, Wyvern chose to ultimately change the location's name to Apara, and keep the original name for the island itself. *While most of the Aspara citizens template was created by Wyvern 0m3g4, credit goes to fellow wiki user and good friend, Rukiryo, who helped to edit the images of Rex Kong, Majestic T. Decaden and Regina Marble on the behalf of Wyvern 0m3g4. External Links Aspara - Wikipedia article about the mythical beings the island's kingdom was named after Site Navigation Category:Locations Category:Grand Line Locations Category:Island Category:Kingdom Category:Wg4 Universe Category:One Piece: The Jolly Age Category:Wyvern 0m3g4